


Hello, Nurse

by FagurFiskur



Series: 30 (more) cheesy tropes [28]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Flirting, M/M, Meet in a hospital, Nurse Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-08
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-30 15:29:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5168957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FagurFiskur/pseuds/FagurFiskur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Play nice, boys,” Mary warned. She sat down next to Sam’s bed, carefully brushing his hair away from his forehead. “I should have brought a comb.”</p><p>“Should’ve brought scissors,” Dean muttered.</p><p>Sam glared up at him, but before he could come up with some undoubtedly snappy retort, a man in blue scrubs entered the room. Dean felt his mouth go dry at the sight of him. His name badge identified him as Nurse Castiel Novak, and he was <i>hot</i>. In an unkempt sort of way, which was Dean’s favorite kind of hot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hello, Nurse

**Author's Note:**

> 30 (more) cheesy tropes: #14 Meet in a hospital
> 
> Disclaimer: I know very little about how actual hospitals work.

Dean was in the hospital thirty minutes after Mom’s call.

He knew he was lucky, to have a boss like Bobby who would take a rushed ‘family emergency’ as excuse enough to bail in the middle of a work day. But lucky was the last thing he felt as he stood in the hallway, waiting to find out what had happened to his little brother.

“He complained about stomach pains this morning,” Mary told him, pale as a ghost. “But I didn’t think it was anything serious and I let him go to school. Then the school called me, told me that he’d collapsed in the middle of class.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Dean said. He sounded a lot calmer than he felt.

Mary rubbed her forehead. “God, I’m the worst mother ever. Can’t even tell when my baby’s sick.”

“You’re a great mom.” Dean wrapped his arm around her shoulder and kissed her forehead. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Mary gave him a half-hearted smile, but she didn’t look very convinced.

It was twenty minutes before the doctor came out to talk to them. Turned out it was just an inflamed appendix; Sam had been in a lot of pain and was going into operation, but would be fine. They could visit him tomorrow.

“Didn’t I tell you?” Dean said to Mary as they walked out of the hospital. “He’ll be fine. Takes more than appendicitis to take down a Sasquatch like Sam.”

Mary gave a tired laugh and shoved Dean lightly. “Don’t act like you weren’t worried too.”

 

Sam was tired when they came to visit, his hair standing up on end, but otherwise he seemed fine. He looked kind of like a little kid in the hospital scrubs, with drooping eyelids and a loopy smile from the painkillers, and Dean felt kind of sick thinking about how many things could have been wrong with him other than just an inflamed appendix.

“You doing okay, Sammy?”

“It’s Sam,” Sam said. “‘M not twelve, I’m _seventeen_.”

Dean snickered and ruffled Sam’s hair. Sam made a face up at him – as if his hair wasn’t messed up already – and lazily raised his hand to bat Dean’s away.

“Play nice, boys,” Mary warned. She sat down next to Sam’s bed, carefully brushing his hair away from his forehead. “I should have brought a comb.”

“Should’ve brought scissors,” Dean muttered.

Sam glared up at him, but before he could come up with some undoubtedly snappy retort, a man in blue scrubs entered the room. Dean felt his mouth go dry at the sight of him. His name badge identified him as Nurse Castiel Novak, and he was _hot_. In an unkempt sort of way, which was Dean’s favorite kind of hot.

“I’m just here to change Sam’s IV tubing,” Nurse Novak said, his gruff voice a perfect fit with his scruff and messy hair. “Pretend I’m not here.”

 _Impossible_ , Dean wanted to say, but he kept his mouth shut. Mary took his order to heart and went back to fussing over Sam, but Dean found himself following Nurse Novak’s hands. They moved carefully, with the kind of smooth expertise of someone who’s gone through these same motions a hundred times before.

At one point Nurse Novak looked up, catching Dean’s eye. Dean felt his face grow hot and he quickly looked away, but not before he caught the beginnings of a smile on Novak’s lips.

“All right,” Nurse Novak said after a short while. “I’ll be back in about an hour with your lunch. If you need anything, just press this button.”

As he walked out of the room, Dean couldn’t resist taking another glance at him. Nurse Novak was looking straight at him, nodding slightly when he saw Dean looking. Dean grinned in return, his stomach twisting with a mix of nerves and excitement.

“Great,” Sam sulked after Nurse Novak had left the room. “I’m in the hospital after _almost dying_ and all Dean can think about is hitting on my nurse.”

“Sam,” Mary chastised.

 

The next time Dean visited the hospital, later the same day (what? He was a worried big brother, nothing weird about that), Sam was asleep. 

Dean walked as quietly as he could into the room and sat down next to the bed, not wanting to wake Sam up. He looked even more like a little kid with his features slack, snoring softly. On the bed next to his hand, looking like it had rolled from his slackened grip, was the call button Nurse Novak had pointed out earlier.

Dean bit his lip. He _really_ shouldn’t. But what was the harm in checking? Maybe the button was broken or something; he’d be doing Sam a favor by checking it for him.

Before he could talk himself out of it, Dean grabbed the button and pushed it. It didn’t make a sound. Frowning, Dean pushed it a couple of times more, but nothing happened.

Suddenly, Nurse Novak came running into the room. He came to a screeching halt when he saw Dean holding the button, eyes wide.

“I was just… checking,” he said, cheeks flushing with guilt. “To see if it worked.”

Nurse Novak fortunately looked more amused than mad. “It doesn’t make a sound on your end.”

“Well, that’s stupid.”

Dean wanted to smack himself as soon as he’d said it. Great flirting, Winchester, A-plus material.

“I agree,” Nurse Novak said. He was smiling, which Dean took as a positive. Maybe he was charmed by guys who flirted like they’d never talked to a human being before. “But is everything okay otherwise?”

Dean glanced down at his brother, who hadn’t stirred at Nurse Novak’s entrance. There was a small trail of spit running down his cheek from the left corner of his mouth. “I think so. He’s been asleep since I got here.”

“That’s perfectly normal. Surgery can take a lot out of a person.”

Something eased in Dean’s chest; worries he hadn’t even been aware he’d had easing. “How long does he have to stay in the hospital?”

“That depends on how quickly he recovers.” Nurse Novak walked over, standing on the other side of the bed. “But it shouldn’t be more than a few days. Maybe three, four at the most, given that he doesn’t get an infection.”

“Good to know.” Dean licked his lips, looking up again. “I’m Dean, by the way.”

Nurse Novak smiled. “Nice to meet you, Dean. I’m Castiel,” he glanced at his badge, “as you probably already know.”

“Hey, Cas,” Dean said, giving a lame little wave. “So, uh… maybe I’ll see you around?”

“I hope so.”

 

The next couple of days, whenever Dean came to visit Sam, Cas was always there. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Dean had let it slip when he would come beforehand, but Dean didn’t want to be too presumptuous. It could be that Sam just really needed that much attention.

He couldn’t need _that_ much attention, though, considering that Cas always followed Dean out into the hallway when he left. They usually struck up a conversation, a couple of times going down to the cafeteria for some (admittedly terrible) hospital coffee.

Through these conversations, Dean learned that Cas was four years older than him, that his parents had wanted him to be a doctor but he’d always had his heart set on nursing, that he had five siblings, all with religious-themed names, and that he was adorably clueless when it came to pop culture.

Most importantly, Dean learned that he didn’t want to stop seeing Cas just because he no longer had a legitimate reason to visit the hospital. But he honestly wasn’t sure if Cas felt the same way, or if he even liked Dean as anything more than a friend.

So while, yes, Sam getting checked out of the hospital with a clean bill of health was obviously a good thing, Dean couldn’t help feeling a little bit disappointed, too.

Judging by Sam’s irritation, he wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding it either. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t get an infection so you could have more time to hit on my nurse.”

“Shut it, squirt.”

Mary groaned. “Boys, please.”

“He’s obviously into you too,” Sam muttered, because he was a stubborn little shit who didn’t know when to quit. “If you weren’t such a chicken about it-”

“Enough,” Mary cut him off. “Sam, let’s go to the car. Dean, you find that young man of yours and ask him out.”

Dean blanched. “ _Mom!_ ”

“I saw him heading for the cafeteria just five minutes ago,” she added helpfully.

As embarrassing as it was to take romantic advice from his mother and little brother, Dean knew he had to. If he didn’t ask Cas now, well, he probably could come to the hospital again later and try then, but somehow this felt like his last chance anyway.

Dean felt a strange urge to run to the cafeteria, but he contained himself, and made do with walking slightly faster than normal.

The cafeteria was only about half-full when he arrived and he spotted Cas right away, sitting with a couple of women in blue scrubs besides the windows. Something caught in Dean’s chest – what if one of those women was Cas’ girlfriend? – but he ignored it and walked over to them.

Cas spotted him first, a smile breaking out on his face. The women who sat with him curiously followed his gaze. One of them elbowed Cas when she saw Dean, and the other grinned wickedly. Dean hesitated, a little unsure, but Cas luckily took the hint and got to his feet, meeting him half-way.

“Hey,” Dean said.

“Hello, Dean.”

Dean cleared his throat. He should have prepared something to say. Maybe some grand, romantic speech, only not, because they’d known each other for less than a week and that would be stupid. Even if Dean’s heart skipped a beat every time Cas so much as looked at him.

“I heard Sam was checking out today,” Cas offered.

“Uh, yeah. We were just here to pick him up. He’s doing great.”

Cas’ smile softened. “That’s good.”

“Yeah.” Why was this so difficult? Dean asked out people (well, okay, _women_ ) all the time. He should know what he was doing. “Um. You wanna maybe…”

“Go out for coffee sometime?” Cas finished for him, because he was an honest-to-god angel.

“Yes!” Dean blushed. “I mean, sure. If you want.”

“I’d like that.”

Dean grinned. “Awesome.”

“Just kiss him already!” called one of Cas’ friend, causing a small of ripple of laughter throughout the cafeteria.

“I apologize for them,” Cas said, his cheeks going pink. “Would you like my number?”

Dean nodded, not trusting himself not to say something stupid like,  _I’d prefer it if you kissed me first._ He took out his cellphone, handing it to Cas who quickly punched in his number. 

“I’ll hear from you soon?” 

“Might be sooner if I got that kiss,” Dean joked before he could stop himself.

Cas laughed. “Well, I wouldn’t want to disappoint my friends.”

He leaned in, hand coming up and cupping Dean’s cheek as he gave him a brief kiss that nonetheless made Dean’s heart jump up into his throat. Somewhere off to the side, he could hear Cas’ friends cheer.


End file.
